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Question: What was Paul's teaching on marriage?
Question: What was Paul's teaching on marriage?
Paul teaches "neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord"
In this very same epistle to the Corinthians, Paul exhorts the saints to follow his example, especially in the ordinances of the church (1 Corinthians 11꞉1–2), and he specifically teaches that the husband is to honor the Lord as his head and the wife is to honor the husband as her head. Most importantly, he gives this statement, which sounds very much like an eternal principle:
neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. [1 Corinthians 11꞉11]
It is evident from the frequency of Paul’s counsel on marriage and family that he placed great importance on the subject. Paul exhorts the women in the Ephesian branch of the church to submit themselves to their own husbands (literally, become subject or obedient to), as they would to the Lord, comparing the husband and the family to Christ and the Church. (Ephesians 5:.) But he also charges the husbands to love their wives (Ephesians 5꞉25) as their Savior loved the church, so that they might sanctify and perfect their families through love. Paraphrasing one of the great commandments—to love one’s neighbor as oneself—Paul says, “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.” (Ephesians 5꞉28.) A husband is not to rule as a tyrant over his wife but is to preside in love. (See Ephesians 5꞉33.)
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